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Ryan Lympus, company manager for Wicked, explains the load-in and set-up of the production, running May 28 to June 29 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Hello Yellow Brick Road. When Wicked opened on Broadway in 2003, most of the major New York critics agreed — the show didn’t work. Sure, there was a lot of talent on stage — everyone loved the lead performers — but unlike the witches of Oz, the verdict was that the production, the music and the story didn’t fly.

Wicked has never come down to earth after a decade later. For nine straight years it was Broadway’s top grossing musical, it’s been a hit all around the planet, making more than $3 billion and the Broadway Across Canada touring production relocated Munchkinland to Vancouver Thursday night to settle in for the summer at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Imagine how well the show would have done with decent reviews.

The stage and screen version of Frank L. Baum’s The Wizard of Oz is a deeply conservative U.S. fairy tale. Dorothy escapes her dreary Kansas farm to become a heroine in a magical land where her response is to whine about a world of wonders because there’s no place like home where the nasty neighbour is going to put her puppy to sleep.

There’s nothing remotely conservative about the musical Wicked, which took a lot of the early critical heat for its lack of political subtlety and liberal sermonizing. Gregory Maguire, author of the bestselling novel of the same name, looked behind the curtain at Oz and reimagined a world where the infamous green witch (Elphaba) isn’t evil, she’s just on the losing side of history. Elphaba is a freedom fighter dedicated to animal liberation in a world where talking goats have been literally scapegoated. She’s christened a “wicked witch” by the fascist wizard’s chief propagandist. The musical adaptation by writer Winnie Holzman and composer Stephen Schwartz celebrates difference and differences — the chorus even features a few dudes in dresses.

Ironically, the politics of Wicked may be closer to the politics of Oz’s creator than the MGM musical was. Baum was a passionate and outspoken advocate for women’s suffrage.

But the wonderful heart of Wicked isn’t political — it’s the beautiful friendship between two of fiction’s most famous witches. The “wicked” witch is a smart-mouthed social outcast courtesy of her green skin, bleeding heart and a father who sees her as nothing more than a nurse for a wheelchair-bound little sister. From the moment Elphaba arrives at school she’s the girl most likely to end up at the prom covered in pig’s blood.

The “good witch” Glinda is the perfectly popular bubbly but not quite bubbleheaded blond.

When Glinda (Kara Lindsay) and Elphaba (Laurel Harris) end up as roomies at Oz’s version of the college would-be wizards end up in after they graduate from Hogwarts, it’s “loathe” at first sight. They even sing about loathing each other. But as the two accidentally bring out the best in each other, their friendship is the story that matters. Together it’s easy to believe the pair can defy gravity as they hit and sustain notes that seem to do just that.

This is an inspiring story about strong women and weak-willed men.

The chemistry between Glinda and Elphaba is magical. The chemistry between either woman and the man they both love, Fiyero (Matt Shingledecker) is at best perfunctory — at least in this production. The guy who comes between them is never much more than a straw man.

The other standout in the show in terms of plot and performance is Madame Morrible (Kathy Fitzgerald) — the headmistress who becomes the power behind the wizard’s throne. Fitzgerald played the same role on Broadway for a year and a half and she’s funny and formidable.

The touring production doesn’t feature all the big Broadway illusions — the flying monkeys never leave the stage — and Eugene Lee’s set is lovely but with the exception of the clockwork dragon above the proscenium and Glinda’s magic bubble it looks built to tour. But Kenneth Posner’s lighting effects are astonishing — fleshing out the backdrops to create worlds, effects and illusions — and flowing with the music like an additional score.

The most surprising thing about some of the original reviews were shots at the supposedly unmemorable music. Defying Gravity defies delighted audiences to forget it as they leave the theatre. And it’s hard to imagine anyone didn’t think Glinda’s wickedly comic anthem Popular wouldn’t become just that.

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